What is Online Scoundrel?

Online Scoundrel is a free, browser-based version of Scoundrel, a single-player dungeon-crawl card game played with a 44-card deck. There is no sign-up or download — it plays instantly in your browser.

How do you play Scoundrel?

Each room deals four cards and you resolve three of them. Clubs and spades are monsters you fight, diamonds are weapons you equip, and hearts are potions that restore health. Survive every room with your 20 health to win.

Is Online Scoundrel free?

Yes. Online Scoundrel is completely free to play, requires no account, and runs in any modern web browser on desktop or mobile.

How does the weapon rule work?

A fresh weapon can fight any monster, but once it slays one it may only be used against monsters strictly weaker than the last one it defeated. You can always choose to fight barehanded instead and take full damage.

Can you avoid a room?

Yes. Instead of fighting, you can flee a room and send all four of its cards to the bottom of the deck — but you cannot avoid two rooms in a row.

How is my score calculated?

If you win, your score is your remaining health, with a bonus if you finish at full health after playing a potion. If you lose, your score is negative: your health minus the total value of every monster still left in the dungeon.

Is this the same as the tabletop Scoundrel?

Yes. Online Scoundrel follows the canonical rules of Scoundrel by Zach Gage and Kurt Bieg, including the strict weapon-degradation rule.

Scoring

Scoundrel Scoring

Scoundrel's score is simple but sharp: it rewards finishing healthy and punishes dying early. Here's exactly how points are calculated — and the one trick to score above 20.

Winning: your leftover health

Clear the dungeon and your score is simply the health you have left, from 1 up to 20. Every point of damage you avoid is a point of score, so surviving comfortably matters as much as surviving at all.

The bonus that beats 20

There's one way past 20: finish at full 20 health with a potion as the very last card you play. Its value is added on top, so the theoretical maximum is 30 (a 10 of hearts played last at full health). It's rare, but it's the only route to a 20+ score.

Losing: a negative score

If your health hits zero you lose, and your score goes negative: your below-zero health minus the total value of every monster still left in the dungeon — the undrawn deck plus the current room. The more of the dungeon you left unfought, the worse the number.

Why it's scored this way

The negative-on-loss rule means a leaderboard sorted by score naturally puts wins on top, then ranks losses by how far you got. Dying in room two against a full deck of monsters is far worse than falling at the final room.

Chasing a high score

Because a win caps at 20 (or 30 with the bonus), the real contest is finishing with as much health as possible: take free weapon kills, avoid needless bare-handed damage, and don't overheal past the cap.

Quick scoring tips

Never overheal — health above 20 is wasted score. Save a large potion for a possible last-card bonus if you can reach the end at full health. And weigh every bare-handed hit: the health you spend is score you lose.

Go set a high score

Put it into practice — start a run now.

Play Scoundrel